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Easter Rising - Aftermath
For All Nails #267D: Easter Rising - Aftermath By Noel Maurer and Henrik Kiertzner ---- :Cartagena, Granada Libre :17 April 1977 Chapa and Rubro ate a plate of hot, steaming empanadas. Good stuff. "Even if the fucking limones put down the uprising," said Rubro, "they won't be able to administer the place. Look at what the strike had been doing." "Yes, that's quite good," replied Chapa. "Of course, one might think that driving them out of América would be even better." "Yeah," sighed Rubro, "it would. But I don't think we can. At least not this time. We've used up astounding quantities of missiles, and our air assets are too limited to use here on the coast." "I do suppose that the North Americans will just have to raise taxes again," replied Chapa. "Thank God for socialism!" Rubro glared at him. Jeffersonism was not socialism! "That might not be so easy. The English are making very concerted efforts to shut down the pipelines." "They won't be able to," said Chapa. "It's a big country. And, at the risk of sounding romantic, dreams stay with you in a big country. The resistance will only get worse." "Yes, of course it will. That's true. But I am worried. Have you heard the reports from the Pacific?" Chapa knew what Rubro meant. "You mean the slopes?" "Yes, the slopes. Thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands of them. Occupation troops. The taki-takis and the limones won't try occupying us on a shoestring again." Before Chapa could reply, jet engines started howling overhead. Antiaircraft missiles -- some manned by Tory volunteers, most not -- took off with a crack and a whoosh, followed by another crack as they exploded. Bombs exploded on the ground. The dinnerware rattled and the ground shook. But not terribly much: The Castillo de San Felipe was nothing if not solid. The Spaniards had built the fort to defend against English privateers; now, its walls and tunnels defended against British airmobiles. "My," said Chapa, "those limón pilots are brave, aren't they?" "They know we're running out of missiles. They've already re-taken most of the other cities. And there are rumors that they have used chemical weapons in Cundinamarca." More bombs burst, not too far away. "Well, if we fail now, we just try and try again later, until the limones get tired of it." "Soon there won't be anything left but wreckage," said Rubro. "Yes, but will be our wreckage," said Chapa. "And don't you people hate the cities, anyway? Consider it Applied Jeffersonism." Rubro didn't laugh. Chapa didn't expect him too. More missiles fired, and more bombs rained down upon Cartagena. ---- :No. 10, Downing Street :London, Great Britain :20 April 1977 Sir Geoffrey Gold was in conference with the new Chief of the United Imperial General Staff, and the liaison officers of the Scandinavian, Taiwanese and Australian armed forces. The five men were gathered around a long oblong table, covered with a large-scale map of New Granada. A number of aides and staff officers were crowded deferentially around the walls of the room. The CUIGS was finishing his report on the status of the raids on the supply bases which had maintained logistic support for what was left of the RNG armed forces. "...and finally, um, here in Río Negro, a full battalion of the Free Granadan Fusiliers, with some support from a Fallscreen Scout detachment, assaulted and destroyed a Mano encampment. A number of foreign nationals are thought to have been among the Mano casualties. Our own casualties were very light ... around a dozen or so killed and perhaps twenty seriously injured. We estimate upwards of 200 heavy lokes destroyed, around 30 heavy transport airmobiles and a number of terrors. Total Mano casualties, probably in the range of three to four hundred." Gold winced. This was grossly disproportionate and smacked of massacre, rather than combat. "And how many of them were, um, foreign nationals, George?" The Field Marshal stared him straight in the eye. "All of them, Geoffrey. All of them." The Prime Minister was shaken. Altogether, over two thousand had been killed by the Operation Mordred raids over Easter, of which over a thousand had been non-Granadans. Added to the more than 30,000 "civilian" casualties from the suppression of the Easter Rising which had broken out throughout the occupied territories, even Sir Geoffrey Gold blenched at the butcher's bill. "Do we have any sense of how many of the foreign nationals were, um, Eastern, as opposed to, um, Western?" "The proportion is probably 95% Eastern, Prime Minister. The Pouffs are considerably more promiscuous in putting their untrained volunteers in harm's way than the Yanquis." "So, then, in summary. We have mainly contained this uprising in the occupied territories, with massive casualties inflicted on armed civilians and outrageous property damage to the homes of those we are notionally there to protect, have slaughtered upwards of a thousand of our kith and kin -- yes, yes, Admiral Yeung, not your kith and kin, I do appreciate that -- and are now perhaps in a state of war with the USM and the CNA?" "No, Prime Minister. We have assisted the civil power in the restoration of order and the rule of law in the areas of former New Granada under military occupation and have provided limited logistic assistance to the armed forces of the legitimate government in controlling the inflow of Terrorist weapons into the pacification zone. Our friends in the great American democracies can hardly condemn our taking robust measures to remove these criminals and their infrastructure from their, eh, back yard." "Thank you, Field Marshal, that is extremely helpful." Gold leaned back in his chair, removed his spectacles and, closing his eyes, massaged the bridge of his nose. ---- Forward to FAN #268: The Horror, Whatever. Forward to 21 April 1977 (American War/Great Britain/New Granada): O Joy O Rapture Unforeseen. Return to For All Nails. Category:American War Category:Great Britain Category:New Granada